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Personal Injury Law

: Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer

How inducing hypothermia can be used to treat SCI

By Megan Roth

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As has been discussed in our previous posts, spinal cord injuries are severe and affect much more than just the specific location where the injury is incurred. Such injuries can have a great many effects on the body, one of which is the reduced ability to regulate body temperature. Just ask Kevin Everett, a former professional football player who knows the effects of spinal cord injury all too well.

Everett was injured during a game in 2007 and immediately thereafter paramedics began attempts to cool Everett's body between six and eight degrees. Why? What's the reason behind this method of treatment?

Persons suffering a spinal cord injury are prone to hyperthermia. The functions of the autonomic nervous system undergo drastic change; thus, allowing for spikes in body temperatures. These changes in temperature may occur naturally, in response to the environment, or as a result of physical activity. In order to limit these 'spikes', many physicians and paramedics have turned to treatments of induced hypothermia, which can be brought about through injections of cold saline and other body-cooling methods (through a series of process before, during, and after surgery).

Though inducing hypothermia doesn't guarantee lesser effects from the injury, it has been known to limit swelling and to protect the brain by slowing metabolism and lessening the bodies need for oxygen and other nutrients (which may not be transported efficiently due to the disruption of many of the body's systems).

Simply knowing the effects an increase in body temperature can have on someone with a spinal cord injury can help determine the effects that injury will have. Something as simple as placing cold towels on the injured person's forehead, arms, etc. may help decrease their body temperature and may lessen the extent of their injuries. Just ask those involved in the treatment and rehabilitation of Kevin Everett; though the effects of the cooling treatments aren't certain, many physicians credit them with increasing the odds of Everett's (among others') ability to recover.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Megan Roth

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on June 01, 2008 (boomark / email).